Hades and his Lover (Part Six)

Hades and his Lover
Part Six


I wasn’t quite sure what was happening after I married Persephone. The night before, when I had told him about her, he distanced himself. At first I thought it would just be a few days apart, some time to adapt, but after a month, he didn’t return to my bed, and a month became six months then a year, and then nearly two years, and I was frustrated. I didn’t want to force him, but I missed our time together. Persephone had been part of a deal forged between Zeus and myself. I didn’t really want her –yes, she was beautiful and fair and I could see myself loving her if she would have given me half of a chance, but she was already so set against me that Marius was to be my only release, and he too seemed to want nothing to do with me.
It was a few evenings after Persephone had left for the summer, I was still awake in my study. I had sent Marius to bed a few hours before, and now I was feeling lonely –among other things. Now, had it been two years previously, I probably would have gone to his room, pulled him out of bed, and pushed him back into my silken sheets against his half-hearted protests, but I wasn’t in the mood. I didn’t want to force him, I wanted him to be with me because he wanted it as badly as I did. So, I did the first thing I could think of.
“Hades, brother…a visit from you at this hour of the day is unprecedented. What ever is the matter?” Zeus, who it struck me looked a lot like Marius the exception of his flatter nose and more rippled muscles, stood up from his seat where he had been wooing one of the cupbearers.
I shrugged, “I just wanted to talk, perhaps we could go somewhere private?”
Zeus looked apprehensive for a moment before nodding, “Of course, we can go to my chambers.” He turned to one of the servants, “Bring us some food and wine, it doesn’t really matter what.” He waved them away before taking my arm. “I’m glad you’ve come to visit –does this mean you aren’t angry about the lottery business anymore?”
“I’m perfectly happy with the Underworld, Zeus. That’s not my problem.”
“What’s the matter then?” Zeus ushered me into the antechamber of his room, taking a seat near the flickering fireplace. “How are things working out with Persephone?”
“Things with are fine, but my little conquest is giving me a problem.” Hades took a seat across from him. “It’s been far to long since we’ve been together and I’m growing impatient.”
Zeus raised an eyebrow, “And so you come to me?”
“At this point, anyone would be adequate.”
Zeus smiled and gave a light laugh, “Oh, I’m simply adequate?” He looked amused, almost as though he knew what it was that I had come here to plead for. Well, maybe not ‘plead’. Zeus was a more then willing partner to anyone who wished his company, and while Marius was seemingly abandoning me, I needed company. Company that neither my wife, nor any of my other servants could dream to fill. If I couldn’t have Marius, then I wanted the next best thing –one that looked like Marius.
Nearly two millennia later, Zeus would accuse Marius of looking like him, but from my point of view, which they should have been looking from, it was the other way around. Zeus may have been older, but it was not his golden curls and blue eyes that I had fallen in love with it, but at that particular moment in time, it didn’t matter. I could ignore the short length of his hair, the flatness of the bridge of his nose, and the feel of his muscles.
“You haven’t voiced the reason you’ve come here, Hades, but I can see it. Are you sure that it is what you want?”
“I don’t want to be another of your little conquests, Zeus. However, if you’re asking if I’ve deeply considered the consequences of sleeping with you, yes, I have and I’m obviously not bothered to much, or else I wouldn’t be here. I guess this whole visit comes down to you, Little Brother. Do you want to make this trip worth my while or have I just wasted my time?” I leaned back in my chair, attempting to appear nonchalant but probably failing spectacularly at it.
Zeus considered for a minute before he replied, “Okay, I’ll make this trip worth your while.” He stood up, crossing the short space between the two of us and leaning over to press his lips to mine.
From the antechamber, we stumbled into his bedroom. I took a minute just to look around, awing at its contrast from my own chambers in the underworld. It occurred to me that the numerous times I’d been to Olympus and the number of years of our existence, I had never been in Zeus’s rooms. The paint and décor matched him perfectly in burnt orange and brown hues, giving it a bright and warm feel. His bed was nearly twice the size of mine, but not quite, and was covered in silk and lace coverings, all of which were thin due to the pleasing warmth that always seemed to enwrap the castle situated on Mount Olympus. The only thing that didn’t seem to fit with the decoration the room was the large wood-and-leather chest at the foot of the bed.
“What’s that for?” I asked, tapping the chest with my foot.
Zeus grinned, his breath warm against my neck as he bit softly at my earlobe, “Those are just my toys. Maybe we’ll open it up later, hm? I think I may have a few things in there you might like.” His hand was at the back of my neck, brushing my hair upwards before pressing his lips against my skin again.
“I think a lot of people would find it morbidly ironic that you’re the sadist in the family.” I turned around in his arms and kissed him, my eyes closing involuntarily. It didn’t occur to me until later that my eyes closed so that I wouldn’t have to look at him.
His mouth tasted different from any of the others I had kissed –and granted there were only two. Marius’s mouth was sweet, only made sweeter by the wine I sometimes forced him to drink under protest, just for the opportunity to taste it from his skin. Persephone’s mouth was dry and occasionally tasted of Pomegranates. Zeus’s mouth however tasted greatly of white wine and ambrosia, two things I had never really cared for.
He laughed softly after our kiss was broken and pulled me over to the bed. It wasn’t until I was actually on my back, drowning into one of the glossy pillows and Zeus’s mouth was at my throat while his hands began to unbutton my shirt that I really realized what would happen.
As his hands slid up my now bare stomach and chest, I thought to myself –had I come here to be or to do the sodomizing?
Zeus seemed to feel my hesitation as he looked up, his tongue still pressed to my bare skin like a dog who had been interrupted while drinking. “Is something wrong?”
I thought over that simple little question for a moment before shrugging, “No, no…I guess not. I just wasn’t expecting to be your bitch, I guess.”
“It’s your first time, isn’t it? Of course you should be the bitch.” Zeus laughed softly again into my ear and I resisted the urge to cringe. I could correct him and tell him about Marius…I suppose he didn’t realize that I wasn’t talking about Persephone, and it wasn’t like he knew about the Shades and the spells on the castle. I wasn’t about to correct him either. Let him think that this was all because of a fickle woman. He didn’t need to know about Marius. No one needed to know about Marius. No one.
“You’re not a very attentive lover, Hades.” Zeus chided, slipping his shirt over his head. Them I noticed that some time had passed and we were both now ude, though I had no recollection as to how it had occurred.
“My apologizes. My mind still likes on…”
“Someone else?” He filled in, his thigh brushing my member as his own shaft pushed into my hips as he slid over to lay beside me. “Forget about them. If they loved you, you wouldn’t be here right now, begging for this favor.” His mouth pressed a kiss to my cool shoulder and he moaned. “Hmm, you need light, Brother. Your skin is as cold as ice. Let me warm you up.” His lips then made a trail down my shoulder, across my chest and down my stomach.
“Your lips do little for me,” I admitted. “That isn’t what I came here for.”
He nodded, “Okay fine then. You’re not the type of foreplay, I take it.”
“Oh, I am, just not your brand of it.” I lifted his face back to mine, tugging his hips back over mine, our bodies pressed together. “Please, just give me what I came here for?”
He almost looked as though he might refuse before he nodded, leaning back, “Alright, how do you want it then?”
I worded as nicely as I could that I didn’t want to look him in the face while he pounded into me and soon found myself on my hands and knees, a ways away from the bed where it was “more stable”. A silk sheet was the only thing between the stone floor and us. My fingers gripped the blood red fabric as Zeus’s hands clenched around my shoulders. I was sure if I was overly fond of the sensation of his appendage inside of me. He was large, and rough, and it was pretty clear that he wasn’t really thinking of me and my needs any more. It wasn’t until he was nearing the end that his hands slipped from my shoulders and around my member.
After we had both been spent, Zeus emptying himself into my backside, and me splattering my own come against the red silk sheet, we rolled away from each other, Zeus breathing heavily. I lay on my stomach, looking at him for a moment before giving a slight sigh and shaking my head, picking myself up from the floor.
“Where are you going?” He asked, leaning up on his elbows, watching me to dressed again but not making any other move to try and stop me. He looked confused, and after I had refastened my trousers, and pulled my shirt back over my shoulders, I knelt over him, holding his face in my hands, looking into his deep pool-like eyes before shaking my head, pressing a last kiss to his lips.
“I’m sorry, I guess this isn’t what I wanted after all. I’ll just see myself out.” I stood up, shoving my feet back into my boots and buttoning my shirt as I moved towards the door.
“Wait,” He sat up, getting onto his knees. “You’re just…you’re just going to leave? Did…did you not enjoy yourself?”
I turned back to him, shrugging, “It was fine, just…not what I wanted, I guess.”
Zeus sat back, pulling the sheet over himself, “I can’t fix whatever I did wrong, Hades, unless you tell me what it was that I did or didn’t do.”
“You had a good time,” I stepped back towards him, touching a hand to the top of his head, “That’s all that matters. Goodbye Little Brother, I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”
After I left Olympus, I returned to my study in the castle. I guess I had thought that by sleeping with someone else, that maybe I wouldn’t miss Marius as much, but in fact, I missed him more. I knew that it had only been two years since I had last had his company, and in the scheme of things it wasn’t that large of an amount of time, but…it had been equally as long since I had felt loved. In bed, Persephone was stoic, and Zeus had only cared about himself. I wanted Marius’s warm breath against my skin, his soft voice at my ear…I just wanted to hear the word “Master” past his parted lips.
The morning after my tryst with Zeus and my make-up with Marius, which I won’t relay again because it is a part of the story you’ve already heard recounted by both of us, I woke up to Marius pressed to my chest. Our arms and legs were entwined and my chin resting on the top of his head and the pale faux-sun cast a dim glow across the room through the gauzy curtains.
Marius stirred as I shifted to pull my fingers through his hair, curling one of the loose locks around my finger.
“How late is it?” He yawned, straightening on the bed.
“It doesn’t matter. You can stay right where you are for as long as you like.”
“No, I can not,” he sighed. “I wish I could, but I really can not.”
“Can’t or shouldn’t?” I asked, lifting his face to mine, brushing more of his curly locks out of his face.
“A little of both,” he admitted, pulling my hands away from his face and into our laps. “I’ll go get dressed and bring you your breakfast.” He started to move away, but I pulled him back.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got everything I could ever want right here.”
“Your words are sweet Master, but I sometimes have a hard time believing them.” He looked up at me, one foot touching the floor, the sheet pulling away from both of us, still tangled on the bed.
“What are you talking about, Marius? I mean everything I say to you. Do you really doubt me? I find that sad and disheartening, Marius.” I shook my head.
“You were with another man before you came to me last night, Master. Who was it? Or do I not wish to know? You can tell me I do not and I will not speak of this again, but if you truly care for me then you will tell me.” He turned away from me as though he couldn’t bare to look at me while I admitted who I was I had done while we were apart.
“Marius, you need to understand –I was frustrated. I needed someone, anyone.”
“You could have come to me first, Master!” He leaned forward, his elbows touching his knees and his hands covering his mouth. The both of us were quiet, only the soft sounds of the castle and the kingdom around us, muted by the stone walls to remind us that time still passed. Marius had never spoken out to me before. He was timid and shy and really quite the follower. I wasn’t sure if I liked it when he spoke out, the tone in his voice was unintentionally reprimanding and though I still felt that it wasn’t really the fault of either of us that I had sought Zeus’s company, I felt as though I was being blamed, and I was more then open to taking that blame.
“I’m sorry,” and even though the words passed my lips and I meant them, I could sense that Marius would find them to be empty.
He shook his head, “I know but you have nothing to be sorry for. You took a wife, and I thought the wrong thing; you got tired of waiting for me and so you went looking for someone else. I have no reason to be angry with you.”
“Of course you do,” I moved to wrap my arms around his waist. “You have every reason in the world to be angry with me and…I don’t know how to make you see that just because all of this has happened, I still have you. I just want things to go back to the way that they were.”
“Master, I am not entirely sure that it is possible. You have a wife, I have more duties to perform because of her, I have more responsibility then when it was just the two of us.”
“Forget about her, Acacia can take care of the Queen,” I scolded, shaking my head and pressing my lips to his shoulder. “You want me to get rid of her? I will –just say the word and Marius and I will banish her to the River Styx.”
“You cannot do that and you know it,” Marius sighed, reaching up to touch my hands. “We…we will just have to be content to be together in the months she is gone.”
“Nonsense. She rarely shares a bed with me and even when she does, she never stays long after we’ve finished. You can be with me every night for the rest of eternity if that is what you want… Is that what you want, Marius?”
He shook his head, “I do not need that, Master. I just need to know that you still love me.”
“Marius, you are the only person I’ve ever loved,” I turned his head to kiss his lips. “Don’t you get it? Persephone means nothing, Marius. She was part of a deal with Zeus, and a way to get my siblings off my back about getting married and instilling a Queen to the Underworld. I don’t and I have never wanted her here.”
“Please, do not play me for being stupid, Master. I have seen the way you look at her, watching her move. You used to look at me that way, but…now I hardly ever feel your eyes on me.”
“Just because you don’t feel me looking at you, Marius, doesn’t mean that I don’t. I watch you every day, memorizing the way that you move,” My hand slid up his wrists, across his stomach and chest.
Marius groaned, leaning back against me, shaking his head, “Master, we can not…I have things to do today, as do you. Others are probably already wondering where we are.”
“To hell with everyone else,” I rolled my eyes at the euphemism that had just come out of my mouth, “We’ll stay hold in here with important business –all day if we must.”
“Important business?”
“Hmm,” I agreed, kissing the back of his neck. “I want to hear a few choice moans and possibly a few contractions pass your lips. That’s very important business, or I think it is anyway.”
“Ah, and what do we tell everyone when they ask why we spent the day together in your bed chambers? I doubt that would be a satisfactory excuse, Master.”
“Tell them it’s none of their business –it isn’t after all. I’m the God around here, I decide what is and isn’t to be done around here.”
“No, I am sorry, I cannot. How ever, I’ll come to you tonight after the castle is asleep… Would that make you happy?”
“Not as happy as I’d be if you’d just stop thinking about work for a few minutes and take the time to kiss me.” I tempted him, and was then rewarded with a rather unchaste kiss from Marius.
As he stood up from the bed, pulling on his clothes again, stepping lightly as he felt my eyes against his bare back. Then he moved to the clothes cupboard, pulling open the doors to remove fresh clothes for me from inside.
“You never answered me Master.” He placed the clothes at the foot of the bed, leaning against the short port. “Who…who were you with?”
I sighed, standing up and stretching my arms behind my back, “Do you truly wish to know, Marius? I can tell you, and I give you great assurance that it isn’t likely to happen between the two of us again. I thought I would get fulfillment out of it, but I didn’t. It just made me miss you even more and forced me to seek your company.”
“Well, now I just harbor a morbid curiosity.” He approached me, his hands touching my bare hips lightly, the fabric of his trousers the only thing between our members. “You are telling me you didn’t enjoy it, or at least not enough. Who do I better in the ways of your sexual exploits?”
“You talk s though I’ve had sexual exploits, my silly little boy,” I kissed his forehead. “And if you must know, I went to Zeus. He was no help and a very selfish lover. I hope the females of his trysts get more satisfaction from him.”
“Hmm,” Marius nodded. “I hope then that you can just be happy with me from now on? –Master, really. Even if I had told you no and protested, you still could have taken me many times in the last two years. All you had to do was ask.”
“I was afraid,” I admitted.
“Afraid? Master, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. What do you have to be afraid of?”
“Your rejection, Marius. It would kill me.”
“Again, ridiculous. You’re a God. It would not kill you.”
“Well then, the rest of my existence would be very sullen and cursed.” I sighed, “Stop reading into everything I say, most of what I speak is metaphoric.”
“I have noticed that,” Marius nodded, pulling out of my arms again and turning to walk towards the water basin to pick it up after a bit of effort.
“Let me do that,” I chided, crossing the room after him, placing my hands on top of his around the edges of the bowl.
“Master, you need to get dressed. I don’t think it would be wise to walk down the hall in nothing, with just the basin to cover yourself. Besides, that isn’t what I’m doing and you should know my routine by now. Shame on you.” He balanced the basin against his hip and placed the matching pitcher on the floor in front of him, water splashing his shirt from the porcelain tub. I moved back towards the bed to dress while he poured the water from the basin back into the pitcher before placing the tub loudly back onto the stand.
“I will go fetch you fresh water Master, and call for your breakfast. Is there anything in particular you would care for?”
“No, just you,” I teased, sitting back down on the bed, my shirt still unbuttoned as Marius bit his lip considering for a moment before turning towards the door to flip the lock back over and exit quietly with the sloshing decanter.
I waited on the edge of the bed and thought about the last half hour or so that had passed. How quickly our moods had changed –Marius’s usually dormant temperament had rose but quickly descended, almost instantly. Only Marius had the ability to make me feel as though I wanted to die with a few simple words and a soft apology. He couldn’t possibly realize just how much power he actually held over me. Maybe it was better that he didn’t –not that he would be the kind of person to take advantage of that, but I didn’t want him to treat me differently. Maybe I was stereotyping him. Was Marius the kind of person who would change just because they realized that they actually held all of the power in a relationship?
I had never intentionally tried to make Marius feel as though he was just my servant. I called him my slave more as a term of endearment then as an actual title. Certaintly, I tended to take the more dominate role in bed, it wasn’t as though I would have had a problem trying something new if he wanted, and last night had been a testament to that. Doing it in that position had been awkward when tried with my brother, but with Marius there, it had felt right. Like he belonged there.
Marius broke my concentration when he pushed the door open with his hip, “Master, your water. Madus is bringing up your breakfast. It should be here in a few minutes.” He placed the pitcher down with a thunk sound.
“Is it warm?” I asked, crossing the room to wrap my arms around his waist again.
“Hmm, it is not cold, but it’s as warm as I could get it. The fires must be going down. I will have one of the others go check on it.” He turned, pressing a soft kiss to my mouth. “I have chores to do. I’ll come and bring your lunch this afternoon.”
“Wait—” I pulled him by the wrist. “Why don’t you just ignore your other duties? Stay here with me?”
“If I do that, you will not have clean clothes or bedding and nothing will get cooked and everything will develop a fine layer of dust.”
“Great, I love dust.”
“Don’t be silly. I’ll see you later,” He patted my hand before continuing towards the door. “Don’t forget that Madus is bringing your tray.”
“Of course, Marius.”

And now, Marius had been kidnapped twice –once by Persephone and reincarnated, and most recently by Zeus. It had been a long time since either of these kidnappings had occurred and since then, Marius had been forced into Godliness and traveled yearly between the castle on Mount Olympus and my brother Zeus, and me and our Underworld kingdom.
Now, I stood in Zeus’s private audience room, devising a plan to get Zeus to leave Marius alone.
“I’m not sure why you’re here, Hades.” Zeus admitted, “Besides to chide me for roughing up your pet. I’m not as hard on him as you think, Brother.”
“That’s not why I’m here, I’m here to deal with you.” I hooked my thumbs over the pockets of my trousers, rocking back on my heels.
“A deal to get me to stop sleeping with Marius –am I right?”
“In a way; I have a better offer for you.” I shrugged.
“Oh? Well then, maybe you should have a seat.” Zeus motioned me into a chair across from him and I sat softly on the end of it. “So, please; go on and tell me about this deal you wish to make.”
“I think you took a little more away from that one time we were together then I did. I’m not sure why, but I guess…it meant more to you.”
“Bullshit, it was just sex. That was fine with me.” Zeus scoffed.
“Then why are you punishing me for not caring about you?” I asked, “If it was just sex for you Zeus, why take Marius from me for your own sick pleasure?”
“I happen to like Marius. He’s very pretty and he has a lovely moan and begging voice.” Zeus sipped from the goblet of wine from the tray next to him. “Oh, I’m sorry, how rude of me. Would you care for a drink, Brother?”
“No thank you, and don’t ignore me, Zeus. If you want me, you have to tell me, not use Marius to play a game with my head.” I sighed, “So what is it? Do you want me and to leave Marius out of this, or do you really, truly, most undoubtedly want Marius?”
Zeus considered for a few minutes, continuing to sip his wine, before he shook his head, “Do you really understand what you’re offering? Why should I give up ninety nights with Marius for one night with you? Hell, Hades, would it even be for a whole night or would you just let me fuck you and call it that before making your way back out? Marius does a lot more for me then that.” He smiled softly at me over the edge of his goblet, his eyes bright and playful. “You might even say we’re becoming friends –not quite as close as he and Hestia but still…he’s not fucking her, is he? That would probably turn the world on it’s axis and send us into oblivion if that girl ever got any.”
“You shouldn’t talk about your sister that way,” Hades chastised.
“I’m not being rude, I’m telling the truth. It really would through the world in mortal chaos. Why do you think she’s remained a virgin this long? Everyone here knows better then to touch her. Poor Hestia.”
“You’ve always been so melodramatic, Zeus. No one on Earth even cares about us anymore.”
“So all the more reason to destroy it?” He mused with another soft smile, “Maybe Marius should fuck with her then –she’s in love with him, you know. Surely you could see it when she visited during the winter?”
“She loves him as family, nothing more,” I denied the obvious. Of course, I had seen the way the two were with each other, but that didn’t mean I wanted to admit it to Zeus.
“You know,” He ignored my reply, “I’m surprised nothing cosmic happened when you banished Persephone or when you admitted your tryst with Marius…perhaps you just aren’t important enough?”
“Not that is bullshit and you know it,” I scoffed. “Hardly anyone even knows who Hestia is –you know, this has nothing to do with what I came here for.”
“Oh, did we get off track? Allow me to just end the previous conversation then: no. I won’t give up the summers with Marius for one escapade a year with you. You must be completely senile to even ask me such a thing.”
“Zeus, what will it take then?”
“Honestly? I don’t know if there is anything you can do.”
“If you won’t make a deal, perhaps I’ll just have to threaten you?” I asked, “Maybe if I took the time to peel off your skin, or castrate you, or perhaps if I just tied you off of a boat in one of my rivers and let the sinner-souls there eat you from the inside out?”
“Hmm…do you think if we try that castration thing that I’d get another kid out of it –like what happened with Poseidon?”
I was quiet for a moment, actually mulling over the possibility before I shook my head, “This is all a game to you, isn’t it? What do you think driving me mad with accomplish, Brother?”
“Well, it is highly amusing for me…besides that, I have no ulterior motives, Hades. You have my sinceriest apologies if you think that I derive some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing you so desperate and Marius so angry and forlorn for you? It’s not true. Maybe at first, but a long time has passed and this isn’t a game anymore.”
“Please Zeus. What can I do?” I asked. I’m sure that my face clearly showed him that Marius was my only weakness. I wasn’t just asking and bartering anymore, I was begging. Zeus held all of the power now and hew knew it. I didn’t like feeling weaker then. It was part of the reason I rarely visited Olympus –the other gods and goddesses had a knack for making me feel inadequate, whether they meant to or not. They had marriages, children, interesting stories that were still studied by the human populace on earth… But no, not me. Forget about Hades. Aside from kidnapping Persephone, I have never done anything worth remembering.
Zeus watched me with an intrigued face, “Honestly Hades…what can you do for me? If I do agree to never touch your beloved Marius’s head ever again I’d say that would leave quite a lot to be repaid.”
“Anything you ask, it is yours.”
“That’s a big promise. You have no idea what I will ask for.”
“I’m sure that it will be something worth Marius’s freedom.”
“Hmm, all right then.” He stood up, shaking my head to seal our deal. “I’ll let you know when I decided what I want from you.”
I’m not sure what I was most afraid of –that I had just made a pact with my sadist of a younger brother, or that I didn’t know what it was he wanted in return for leaving Marius alone.
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon,” Zeus smiled, sitting back down as I stood to leave, “Do you need help finding your way out?”
“No, I’m fine thanks. I’m going to say goodbye to Marius –if that’s alright.” I couldn’t believe I was actually asking for permission to bid my lover farewell, as though he owned us…and I suppose in a way he did. Or at least, he did until I repaid him. All I could do now was wait until he decided what it was I could do to repay him and I knew it wouldn’t be a very pretty price to pay. However, the reassurance that I was Marius’s only lover again and that he was being treated as he should be, would be worth it.